Apologies to visitors using dial-up
connections for today's image-heavy update. I do my best to minimise
loading times, but sometimes it's all about the pictures!

A Silver Anniversary Edition of 1980 kitsch
classic Flash Gordon will be released on October the 25th by Momentum
Pictures.

The disc will be presented in limited
edition "steelbook" packaging. The film will be offered with a choice of
"new" Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS audio tracks. Bonus features include
commentary tracks by director Mike Hodges and star Brian Blessed; an
interview with Hodges; the original Queen theatrical trailer; a photo'
slideshow; and Chapter 1 of the 1940 serial Flash Gordon Conquers The
Universe, The Purple Death. RRP for the disc will be £19.99.

Here's the sleeve image in all it's
glory...

Revelation Films will release the the
second series of the time-travelling sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart on
September the 26th.

The two-disc set will feature all ten
half-hour episodes, in their original 4:3 format, with Dolby Digital
stereo audio. Bonus materials for the second series set will include
commentaries by series writers and creators Maurice Gran and Laurence
Marks, and an interview with actor Christopher Ettridge, who played PC
Deadman. RRP for the set will be £19.99.

Revelation have also revealed that music
clearances for all the episodes in the series have been guaranteed, and
that all six series will feature especially-recorded bonus features.

Revelation will release the 1987 animated
film Sparky's Magic Piano on DVD on September the 26th.

The film, which features the vocal talents
of Mel Blanc, Tony Curtis and Vincent Price, will be in 4:3 format, with
Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio. The disc will include biographies, an
interactive Your First Piano feature, and a photo' gallery. The RRP
is a modest £7.99.

Sleeve images for them as wants 'em...

Universal Pictures will release a 30th
Anniversary Edition of Jaws on August the 29th.

The two-disc set will feature the extended
version of the A Look Inside Jaws documentary; a recently-unearthed
contemporaneous Spielberg interview', From The Set 1974; thirteen
deleted scenes; outtakes; still gallery; Shark Facts and Storyboard
Comparisons (Opening Credits and Chrissie's Death; Death of
Kintner Boy; Hooper's New Future and Original Ending).

arrives in Amity; The Hunt; Sea Otter Discussion;
Search for the Tiger Shark and Quint's Assistant.

No technical details were announced, and
it's not currently known if the Oscar-winning mono sound mix will be
offered (or if we'll be stuck with the grotty 5.1 remix, again). RRP for
the two-disc set is £19.99.

A limited edition (2,500 copies, in the UK)
Collector's box set will also be available. It will include everything
from the two-disc set, as well as a soundtrack highlights CD; limited
edition Seritype; commemorative booklet; eight lobby cards; six publicity
stills and "US theatrical posters". RRP for this set is £39.99.

The film, about a small Texan town's
support for its football team, features Billy Bob Thornton as the team's
beleaguered coach, and his Sling Blade side-kick, American
Gothic's Lucas Black, as an insecure quarterback.

The disc will feature an array of bonus
material: "action-packed" deleted scenes; Peter Berg Discusses a Scene
in the Movie; Player Cam; Tim McGraw: Off The Stage;
The Story of the 1988 Permian Panthers; and an audio commentary by
Berg and writer Buzz Bissinger. This appears to be identical to the US
edition, which was released earlier this year.

No technical spec's were announced. RRP for
the disc is £17.99.

Warner Home Video will release a
re-mastered version of the last Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film,
The Barkleys of Broadway, on September the 12th.

The disc will include a new featurette,
Reunited at MGM: Astaire and Rogers Together Again; a vintage short,
Annie Was a Wonder; a Droopy cartoon, Wags to Riches; and a
theatrical trailer.

The film will be presented in mono. I don't
have any technical information about the video presentation. RRP for the
disc is £15.99.

The
release of The Essential Steve McQueen DVD box set, which was
originally due on sale this week, will now take place on September the
19th.

The
six-disc set will include the recently-released two-disc edition of
Bullitt and the

recently-released edition of
The Getaway.

The new
Bullitt disc features three documentaries, including one that's new to
DVD: The Cutting Edge - The Magic of Movie Editing, a look at the
film editing process featuring input from Steven Spielberg, George Lucas,
Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Ridley Scott. It will also include
a new documentary about the actor, Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool,
which includes contributions from McQueen's first wife, Neile Adams, Sir
Richard Attenborough, Norman Jewison, son Chad McQueen, Peter Yates and
Barbara Minty (McQueen's widow). Disc one will have a commentary track, by
director Peter Yates, and will also feature the film's theatrical trailer.
The third documentary is carried over from the existing disc: the 1968
promotional featurette Bullitt: Steve McQueen's Commitment to Reality.
The film will be presented in 1.85:1 format, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

The other
four films in the Collection are The Getaway, and three titles
making their UK DVD debut: The Cincinnati Kid, Never So Few
and Tom Horn.

McQueen
plays a poker player in 1965's The Cincinnati Kid, another film
directed by Norman Jewison. The disc will feature a commentary by the
director; scene-specific commentary by the David Foley and Phil Gordon,
the hosts of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown; an archival
featurette, The Cincinnati Kid Plays According to Hoyle; and a
theatrical trailer. The film is in mono, and presented in 1.85: widescreen
format.

The
Getaway set includes a commentary by DVD producer Nick Redman, authors
Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle; a "virtual" audio commentary
with stills, featuring McQueen, co-star Ali MacGraw and director Sam
Peckinpah. The disc, which will feature the film in 2.4:1 widescreen
format, with mono audio, will also include a theatrical trailer.

Frank
Sinatra stars in the 1959 McQueen film Never So Few, as the leader
of a band of OSS operatives in WWII Burma. The film also features Charles
Bronson and Peter Lawford. The film will be presented in 2.4:1 widescreen
format, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

McQueen plays a man hired to prevent
violence on a Wyoming cattle ranch in the 1980 film Tom Horn, one
of the actor's last films. The film also stars Linda Evans and The
Straight Story's Richard Farnsworth. The film film will be presented
in 2.4:1 widescreen format, with mono audio.

RRP for the five-title The Essential
Steve McQueen Collection set is £49.99.

The US
version of the set came out last month. It includes an additional film:
Papillon, a title owned by Warner in the US, but by Columbia Tristar
in the UK. Their Papillon disc is bare-bones, in contrast to the UK
disc, which has a featurette, and an isolated score track (featuring a
perennial favourite by Jerry Goldsmith). The UK Papillon disc is
usually available for about £7. SRP for the US set is $68.92.

Spirit
Trap, the paranormal thriller starring Billie Piper, now has a
theatrical release
date, and a nicely moody poster image. The film will open in the UK on August the 12th.

The film,
which also stars Luke Mably, Emma Catherwood, Sam Troughton (Patrick's
grandson) and "Russian singing sensation" Alsou, is about five students
who move into a deserted mansion where dark secrets lurk.

A longer synopsis, a Q&A with the director, and a couple of photo's of
Billie Piper, from the press kit, are available
here.

Here's the poster image.

19th July 2005

Twentieth
Century Fox Home Entertainment will release Ridley Scott's historical epic
Kingdom of Heaven on October the 3rd.

There'll be a single disc version,
featuring a "Pilgrim's Guide" commentary track and an Inside Look at
Tristan and Isolde. That has an RRP of £17.99. Let us speak no more of
it.

The two-disc edition will also have six
extra featurettes, and "a unique interactive step-by-step production grid
that allows you to follow the film’s creative development from a choice of
sixteen documentaries, ranging in length from eight minutes to ninety
minutes". It will also feature an HBO First Look; Orlando Bloom
Visit Reel; trailers and TV spots. RRP for this version is £24.99.

Both discs will present the film in
anamorphic format, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. More details will follow.

Anchor
Bay will release the first season of the long-running sitcom Roseanne
on September the 19th.

Bonus features include Bloopers;
Roseanne on Roseanne (a new interview); Series One Highlights
(for those of you who are too lazy to actually watch the episodes, one
presumes); Wisdom From The Domestic Goddess: John Goodman Takes
A Look Back interview; Biographies and Film Notes.

This appears to be identical to the US set,
which is due on August the 30th. The UK set has an RRP of £24.99

Now you see it, now you don't.... Universal
has changed the sleeve of their upcoming release The Interpreter,
which used to feature a bus exploding. Presumably Universal don't care
that people will see that scene in the movie, they just don't want to
deter people from buying it...

18th July 2005

Ceri has updated the Offers page today, which now includes
lots of new bargains, including lots of Network TV titles, and a bunch of
new Doctor Who book and DVD offers.

I've added a review of the UK Deadwood -
The Complete First Season DVD set to the site today. I heartily
recommend the series, but want to warn you away from buying the UK
edition, which is stripped of all the bonus features that are on the US
edition. Click on the sleeve image, right, or
here to go to the review.

Universal
Pictures will release the Chronicles of Riddick Director's Cut as a two-disc DVD set
on September the 19th.

This version adds about fifteen minutes of
footage to the film, helping to clarify some plot points, adding some
character moments, and making the violence a bit more brutal. In the US
the Director's Cut was released on disc simultaneously with the DVD
release of the theatrical version, but neither disc had extensive bonus
materials. You can read Lee Medcalf's review of the theatrical version
here, and my
review of the original UK DVD
here.

The new disc presents the film in
anamorphic 2.39:1 format, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio (at 384kbps). These
spec's are basically the same as the current disc, but the new one is able
to devote more space to the film itself, and so has a higher average
bitrate (6.67Mb/s as opposed to the 5.76Mb/s of the old one).

The new disc carries over most of the bonus
features from the old one (the ones they've dropped were pretty worthless,
anyway). This includes the commentary track (by writer / director David
Twohy and actors Karl Urban and Alexa Davalos) and the pop-up information
subtitles (the Riddick Insider feature).

The press release makes several erroneous
claims about what's been newly-added to the set. Here's the correct list
of what's new:

Director's Introduction (1m);
Deleted Scenes (with optional commentary, 8m); Creation of New
Mecca featurette (11m); Riddick Rises featurette (13m); Keep
What You Kill featurette (17m). There's also the Interactive
Production Calendar, which offers about thirty short clips to illustrate
the ninety-day shoot. This feature is presented with one of the most
needlessly complex menu systems I've seen, and there's no handy "Play All"
option.

The menu screens for the new disc are very
similar to the ones on the existing disc (including the "CONVERT" or
"FIGHT" option at the beginning, which determines which set of menus
you'll use). You can see some of the new menu screens
here. RRP
for the new disc is £19.99.

Warner
Home Video will release the sixth season of The West Wing on DVD on
September the 26th.

The sixth season picks up from the
devastating events at the end of the fifth season, and takes place during
a Presidential election contest. The season features appearances by
M*A*S*H's Alan Alda (as Republican Presidential candidate Arnold
Vinick, pictured above), NYPD Blue's Jimmy Smits (as Democratic
candidate Matthew Santos) and American Gothic's Gary Cole (as Vice
President Robert Russell). Magicians Penn and Teller also appear, causing
controversy at the White House when they set light to the American flag as
part of their act.

The set will feature twenty-two episodes,
presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format, with 2.0 Dolby Digital
audio. Apparently there are no bonus features. The RRP is £59.99.

Granada
Ventures will issue a 25th Anniversary Brideshead Revisited Collector's
Edition DVD box set on September the 19th, almost... err...
twenty-four years after it was first transmitted (in October 1981).

The four-disc digipack set will include
"commentaries from Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Diana Quick, Nickolas
Grace and producer Derek Granger", and an exclusive documentary shot at
Castle Howard, which will include interviews with some of the cast. The
set has an RRP of £39.99.

Granada has announced that the Catherine
Cookson DVD box set that was due to be released next month has been
postponed until 2006.

HBO
Video will release the fourth series of Six Feet Under on September
the 5th. This is the most recent series to air in the UK (a fifth - final
- season started in the US last month, and will air on E4 around the time
the new DVD set is released). The set will feature thirteen hour-ish long
episodes, seven of them featuring commentary tracks by writers and
directors (episodes 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11 and 12, assuming they're the same as
the ones on the American set). It will also contain deleted scenes and a
featurette on editing the series, titled Cut By Cut. The RRP is
£49.99.

HBO will also release the fourth season of
Larry David's semi-improvised comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm on
September the 26th.

The two-disc set will feature ten episodes
(nine half-hour episodes, and the hour-long season finale), which include
cameo appearances by Ben Stiller, Michael York, David Schwimmer and Jerry
Seinfeld, as well as series regulars Ted Danson and Richard Lewis. The RRP
is £24.99.

Mosaic
will release subterranean horror flick Dead and Dying on October
the 31st, after a three month rental window that begins on August the 1st.

The film, which was directed by Andy Lauer
(who some of you might remember as Charlie in Caroline in the City),
is supported by a twelve-minute featurette, and a theatrical trailer. It's
presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format, with Dolby Digital 5.1
audio (at 448kbps).

Tartan
has announced a correction to the price of their forthcoming Paul Morrisey
DVD set: it will have an RRP of £39.99.

They've also announced that the two-disc
Battle Royale 2: Revenge DVD tin set will be released on October the
24th. The RRP is £29.99.